Lil Dicky joined Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce for this week’s episode of New Heights, and the episode was packed with Lil Dicky’s signature self-deprecating charm. Around the 40-minute mark, Jason asked Lil Dicky whether he’d had a “welcome to the industry” moment.
“Another story I’ve never told that just came into my head that’s perfect for this moment,” Lil Dicky said. The Dave mastermind then took the audience back to the 2015 BET Experience Sprite Celebrity Basketball Game. Back then, Lil Dicky still had imposter syndrome and did not feel like he belonged on the same roster as Floyd Mayweather, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, and John Wall.
“I don’t know how I got in the game to the point where I actually put a lot of stock and import in this game,” he explained. “I got there an hour early to warm up because I literally thought a way that I could get ahead in this industry faster will be, like, scoring 30 points in this game.”
Instead, Lil Dicky was on the bench, and while Chris Brown called Lil Dicky “a dope rapper” pre-game, he also rained on Lil Dicky’s parade. John Wall was the team’s coach and eventually told Dicky he could go in as a substitute for Brown.
“I walk up to Chris, and I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m in for you,’” Lil Dicky said. “And he goes, ‘I’m not coming out.’ Then, there’s 11 guys on the court. Everyone is matched up. I’m clearly the odd man. I look to John Wall, like, ‘Coach!’ And John Wall brings me back over. [The] first thing I say is, like, ‘John, get a grip and have some authority on your team.’ It’s humiliating to send me out there and then pull me back in. It’s so emasculating.”
@newheightshow LD’s first celebrity basketball game did not go like he expected
Once Lil Dicky finally got in the game, he was rewarded by getting “fouled so hard by Deontay Wilder — at the time, heavyweight champion of the world.” He concluded, “I get up. I missed two free throws, and then I played one more meaningless minute. I moved to the end of the bench and just chose not to even make myself available for the rest of the game.”
Watch the full New Heights episode above.